It is the integrated person who recognizes that meeting with true success requires that one's life be balanced, holistic, meaningful, and guided by the "spirit as the inner source of energy and spirituality as the outward expression of that force" (Dehler and Welsh, 2003, p.115) or "lived religion" (Gould 2005).

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Waking Up: Are Spiritual Experiences Becoming More Common?

What are spiritual experiences? I don’t think of them in religious terms. I see them as moments in which our awareness becomes more intense and more expansive than normal, so that the world around us becomes more real and alive, and we feel a strong sense of connection to nature and other human beings. We might feel a sense of joy or inner stillness, and feel that somehow the world around us is "in harmony" or has a meaning that we find difficult to express.

If a person from a religious background has such an experience, they may well interpret it in religious terms. They might see it as a gift from God, and believe that the aliveness and harmony they perceive is a glimpse of the divine, or of heaven. But if you’re not religious, there’s no reason to think in these terms. The experience is just a psychological one. It suggests that our normal vision of the world is limited and in some ways even aberrational. In awakening experiences, there is a strong sense of ‘seeing more,’ of expanding beyond limits and perceiving a more authentic reality.

My research shows that awakening experiences are connected to certain activities and situations. They are associated with contact with nature, spiritual practices such as meditation or prayer, sporting activities (such as running and swimming), and sex. They are also strongly associated with states of intense psychological turmoil. That is, paradoxically, they often occur in the midst of stress and depression, or in relation to traumatic life events such as illness, divorce or bereavement.

However, one of the most interesting things about these experiences is that they are apparently becoming more common. In a 1962 Gallup poll, just 22 percent of Americans reported that they had "ever had a religious or mystical experience." In 1994, 33 percent of people answered yes to the same question, while by 2009, the figure had risen to 49 percent. Research by the Pew Research Center in the U.S. has shown a similar trend. In 2007, 52 percent of Americans reported that they regularly felt a "deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being." In 2014, the figure stood at 59 percent. In 2007, 39 percent of Americans said that the regularly felt a "deep sense of wonder about the universe"—a figure which had increased to 46 percent in 2014. Perhaps significantly, these increases coincided closely with a decrease in interest in organized religion.

In the U.K., the surveys of the Spiritual Experience Research Centre have had similar findings. In a 1969 survey, the question "Have you ever experienced a presence or power, whether you call it God or not, which is different from your everyday self?" was answered affirmatively by 29 percent of people. In 1978, the figure had risen to 36 percent, and then to 48 percent in 1987. In 2000, there was a further steep rise to 75 percent—a 27 percent increase in 13 years (which was, coincidentally or not, exactly the same figure by which church attendance declined over the same period). (1)

A Collective Movement?

Why should spiritual experiences be more common now than they were a few decades ago? It could simply be that people are simply getting better at recognizing them, or are more open about discussing them. Now that there is more general awareness of spirituality in our culture, and concepts such as "spiritual peace and well-being" are a more common part of discourse, it could simply be that more people are describing their experiences in this way, when they might have described them in other terms in earlier decades.

Or perhaps it’s right to take the research at its face value. Perhaps spiritual experiences actually are becoming more common. This is the approach I take in my new book The Leap: The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening. I suggest that spiritual experiences are glimpses of a new state of being that is slowly becoming more normal to human beings. This is a higher-functioning state that I call “wakefulness,” in which a person feels an enhanced sense of well-being, clarity, and connection. They have a more intense awareness of the world around them, a greater sense of appreciation of nature, a broad global outlook, and an all-embracing sense of empathy with the whole human race. In many ways, it is a permanent, ongoing variant of the 'awakening experience.'

I have found many examples of people who shift into this higher-functioning state in the midst of intense psychological turmoil - for example, bereavement, serious illness, or alcoholism—I describe some of these examples in The Leap. This shift is quite common, and can be seen as a variation of “post-traumatic growth”—I sometimes refer to it as “post-traumatic transformation.” There are also hundreds of millions of people around the world who are gradually cultivating wakefulness by following spiritual practices such as meditation and service, or spiritual paths such as Buddhism, Yoga, or the Kabbalah. A constantly increasing interest in self-development, spiritual practices, and traditions is one of the most significant cultural trends of our time.

It seems to me that there is a collective moment towards awakening, which is manifesting itself in a variety of ways—one of which may be the increasing frequency of spiritual experiences.

About Me

"Spirituality may ... be defined as the dimension of human experience that enables an individual to create, encounter or discover meaning, purpose, and value in life." - Louis F. Kavar, Ph. D. and Author of The Integrated Self: A Holistic Approach to Spirituality and Mental Health Practice

I am a graduate of College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in Sociology and an urban planning concentration. During my time at College of the Holy Cross I learned how to effectively express my ideas through writing. It is also where I began to ask a number of really important questions: Who am I? What are my most deeply felt values? How am I willing to be? Do I have a mission or purpose in my life? Why am I in college? and What sort of world do I want to help create? Over the duration of my time spent in college, I learned how to develop personal goals, educational aspirations, and think intently about my religious and spiritual development and formulating a "spiritual quest". Steadily, I gained the confidence, experience, and personal satisfaction that comes through the practice of doing the hard work that is necessary to complete assignments on time and at a high standard in order to step closer to fulfilling my dreams even in those instances wherein the difficulties at times seemed nearly insurmountable. Yes, I learned right there alongside other students how best to persist and prevail.

Today, I see myself more as a "project pursuer", a transformational advocate, a wanderer around invisible peripheries, a witness and facilitator of emergent states (Guldi, 2010), and someone who is eager to work in collaborative relationships with social service organizations, nonprofit entities, and faith-based committees and others who are actively on their way to "framing deep change" and establishing "a new ethic of sustainability, spirituality, and a broader understanding of freedom (Horawitz et al, 2010)". The kind of change that will make the fullest possible use of collective energy or Spirit to drive us all toward a more 'empathic' humanity and by addressing the very important needs of today's urban youth at the local level by; 1.) enabling them to successfully make their transition to adulthood, 2.) facilitating their becoming productively engaged adult citizens, connecting themselves to meaningful work, in positive relationships, and creating a thriving and flourishing place for all, 3.) contributing to their social-emotional-spiritual development, 4.) encouraging the development of their inner knowing and intuition, 5.) cultivating connection with the divine and the sacred through music, visual, and performing arts, and 6.) promoting personal and cultural identity formation and inclusiveness through ongoing exposure to both familiar and universal values and constructive community building practices.

Thank you very much for taking the time to visit my blog. I welcome every possible opportunity to either speak with you by phone or email about the many ways of finding agency, hope, and purpose through face-to-face and heart-to-heart connections with the clear understanding that together we can make a bold impact and be the rising change that is greatly needed in the world today, a "deep change" that completely reflects care, compassion, respect, and universal spirituality or relationship with the "Divine Other (James H. Cone)".

Sincerely,

Jonathan Dunnemann (nickname "JD")

Let's not merely trust our instincts but counterbalance them with the careful consideration of our most important values.